President Trump’s “America First Arms Transfer Strategy”

Overview

President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) on Feb. 6 establishing an “America First Arms Transfer Strategy,” outlining a plan to make significant changes in how the United States sells weapons to other countries. Trump’s plan is to use arms sales to reindustrialize the United States and prioritize sales to countries that invest in themselves or have a critical role/geography relevant to Trump’s National Security Strategy.

The United States is the largest exporter of arms in the world and in 2024 the United States exported approximately $318 billion in arms.

Key Changes

Country Prioritization: The United States will now prioritize arms sales to countries that invest in their own self-defense, occupy critical roles or geography and match U.S. priorities in the National Security Strategy. In the past, arms sales were generally processed in the order they were received. While certain countries were previously prioritized based on current events or administration priorities, this new process will implement a more stringent  prioritization. Ultimately, there will be a clearer set of winners and losers when it comes to getting U.S. weapons quickly.

Prioritize certain weapons systems and platforms: The departments of State and Commerce will develop a “sales catalogue” of prioritized systems. This new system will switch the focus from what the countries want for themselves, to what the United States wants to prioritize to sell or produce. The new system could also reduce delays that result from countries wanting bespoke or highly specialized systems.  It will be critical for companies to have their weapons/weapons system included in the sales catalogue.

Reduce Delays/Streamline Bureaucracy: The administration will make changes to:

• Enhanced end-use monitoring: End-use monitoring is intended to make sure that the correct organizations have received U.S. weapons. The administration may reduce or change the monitoring requirements, or reduce consequences if countries fail to comply.
• Third-party transfer process: Currently, the United States requires other countries to ask U.S. permission to transfer defense articles to another country. Many countries try to engineer out U.S. components on their systems so that they don’t have to come back to the United States for permission to sell a weapon to a different country. Companies with systems or components that regularly require third-party transfers will need to communicate their prior challenges related to third-party transfers  to the administration and monitor changes to process.
• Congressional notification: All sales over a certain monetary threshold are notified to Congress and Congress has the ability, through expedited procedures, to vote on resolutions for disapproval of arms sales. While the executive branch can make some changes to the notification process on its own, many fundamental changes would have to be negotiated with Congress since they are based in law.

Enhanced Transparency/Increased Industry Input: The administration will establish a new “Promoting American Military Sales Task Force” to both oversee the new strategy and monitor sales. In addition, the administration will publish quarterly performance metrics on how quickly they are moving arms sales. The EO also directs the departments of State, Commerce and War to both coordinate and collaborate with industry.

Context

The new changes announced in the Feb. 6 EO will take place on top of the Trump administration’s previous changes to the arms sales system. In April, the administration announced changes to make it easier to export long-range drones by making changes to the Missile Technology Control Regime. The administration also recently moved the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements arms sales, into the main acquisitions arm of the Pentagon so that U.S. and foreign purchases and production are better aligned.

In addition, the administration is in the process of overhauling the entire U.S. defense acquisition and production system. The administration’s changes to the U.S. acquisition system, particularly related to contracting and production planning, will also have an impact on U.S. foreign arms sales.

Key Questions

• Who will be the winners and losers in prioritization of countries? How will the administration deal with existing contracts for countries that have been de-prioritized?
• Will the new weapons sales catalogue streamline the arms sales process by reducing contracting complexity and reducing the number of bespoke systems that can slow down production for foreign partners?  How will the Administration decide which defense articles and companies are included in the sales catalogue?
• What changes will the administration make to the third-party transfer process? Will they also create a tiered system for third-party transfers and allow certain components/weapons to be excluded from existing requirements?
• Will the administration stand up new mechanisms for industry to interact with the executive branch on arms sales?

Additional Information

See below for our client alerts on previous Trump administration changes to the arms sales system.

April 10 – Trump EO on Arms Sales.

Nov. 6 – Sec. Hegseth Speech and Foreign Military Sales Reform